Meghana Jadhav

Meghana, Artist, Entrepreneur, Advertising Agency Founder, Film producer,
Costume Designer, Scuba diver, Kuchipudi Dancer. A high achiever, who runs a successful advertising agency and plays the many roles of an entrepreneur with ease & charm.

Did you always plan to be an entrepreneur?
I came from a loving middle class family. My parents were my earliest supporters and morale boosters in whichever activity I undertook. A passionate dancer at heart, I studied the Kuchipudi dance style for almost 2 decades and have performed in more than 100 stage shows.
Right from the early years in life I exhibited strong organization and management skills. Not only did I enjoy performing on stage but also coordinating the backstage roles and managing the program. This gave me opportunities to hone my organizing skills and interact with various people from different walks of life, which proved a great asset in developing my personality andcareer.

Marrying my high school sweetheart and after completing my C.S.(Inter), the burning desire to achieve something in life led to my decision of starting my own advertising & media agency. My husband Ravi Jadhav is a well-known advertising professional. Leveraging on Ravi’s experience in the field of advertising, we formed our own advertising & media agency called ‘Athaansh
Communications’. While Ravi handled the creative aspects, I took charge of the finance of the agency, which consisted of media planning and buying. Our first client were M/s WamanHariPetheJewellers a reputed and popular jewellery house in Maharashtra.

“When we started with WamanHariPetheJewellers, the company had only 2 retail outlets in Maharashtra and today, they stand at 21 outlets throughout Maharashtra, Goa and Madhya Pradesh.” We did not stop here, we further ventured into TVCs for WamanHariPetheJewellers, which we produced.I also co-ordinate for the costumes for the shoot. After this success, there was no looking back, and soon, Athaansh Communications was providing a wide array of services under one umbrella to its clients such as brand building, media buying & planning including Television, Print, Radio, strategic inputs, TVC production, indoor & outdoor media and above all the creative consultation.

Key clients of Athaansh Communications include reputed names such as
WamanHariPetheJewellers, Kesari Tours, Abhyudaya Bank, Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies (Movie Promotion), Vijay Sales, veena World, etc.

What drives you to dream Big?

We always had big dreams and believed in taking risks to achieve those dreams. We had the potential in us. Ravi and myself is a perfect combination of Creativity and Administration. Ravi is a very creative person and has an extraordinary visualization in marketing skills, whereas I have strong hold on financial management and administration which helped us to manage and plan our goals. We feel that dreaming big is the first step to success.
I believe in dreaming big. To be honest, gender really doesn’t matter. What matters is your passion and your ambitions. Every women or perhaps I should say every human being has a spark in them, a spark of ambitions and dreams that is hidden from the world. We don’t want to keep this spark hidden, no way.We want to ignite them. We want a fire to burn inside of us. A fire that will keep us running towards success.

You are a pioneer in your field which has very few women as agency owners and film producers? Why do you think this is so?

To run any business you require a lot of self confidence and prompt decision making power.
At one point in time, We came to a crossroad in life when Ravi decided to foray into the world of filmmaking. He decided to quit his job and concentrate completely on filmmaking. At this junction the roles reversed and I became Ravi’s biggest support and anchor. I decided to give Ravi a free rein to pursue his creative interests in films and took over the multiple roles of becoming the primary bread winner, taking care of kids & family. I also handled the creative department of their advertising agency.

The hard work and creative talent of Ravi paid off and thus the masterpiece “Natarang” was born. The bold story of the film went on to be a critical success and won the National Award for best film in regional category. I took the support of Zee entertainment to produce this movie. Producing Natrang was a learning process for me, being new in this field, I had to face many hard financial situations. Where Ravi’s creativity was flying high in creating a mater piece Meghana had financial bearers. I still remember the shooting of this movie, when I had no Money left in my Banks and the way I had to manage to raise funds for the shoot. We didn’t get in proper contracts, our budgeting went wrong, we had location problems. We had to keep our house on lean and rise funds. But My faith in Ravi’s vision was my greatest strength.Simultaneously I was handling both my kids, their daily routine, school, studies, extra activities plus my passion for dance.
Now I will come to your question, A woman can handle multitasking very well, all that she needs is a little support and encouragement. My supports were my parents. My father believed and always reminded me that I can do anything. And Ravi who has been with me through my successes and failures.
The fact that I am not alone in this journey of life has and always will keep pushing me forward.

There comes one point in a woman’s life where she has to choose either career or motherhood. Even I had to face such a choice when my younger son was born extremely underweight and was hospitalized every alternate month. There was a point where I decided to quit every thing and stay at home with my kids. But at this point,I also realized that my son’s expensive medication required money. Instead of stopping me this made me work more and as my work is my passion there was nothing stopping me.
I use to work from the hospital itself.Taking care of my child along with it. Instead of stopping me, my children became the driving force behind my work.Creative fields such as advertising and filmmaking have no time bounds or restrictions. As mothers we always face the challenge of dividing time between our kids and our work, leaving little to no time for ourselves. Therefore I decided to bring the office to my home. We started our ad agency from our home. This was the first of its kind. The entire pre production and post production was carried out in my house as well. Aside from work I have my hobbies and one of them is exploring a new world, and that is below the sea level. I am a licensed Scuba diver and I want to open my own scuba center in Thane. Which will encourage more people to explore the unexplored. Overcome all obstacles with confidence and Success will be yours .

What are you passionate about?

I am passionate about everything I do, my work, dancing, driving, costume designing, cooking, fitness and exploring the underwater world. My passion is to explore new fields and I feel the journey has just started for me.

What inspires you the most?

My competitors inspire me the most. My husband and I have a healthy competition with each other regarding our work. This competition continues to fuel the fire within us.

What is your greatest achievement till date?

Getting a national award for our first Marathi Movie Natrang was an appreciation of all our hard work and sacrifices. This achievement encouraged us to achieve more. We received many national as well as international awards, even receiving a National award together for our short film Mitraa
But for me, my greatest achievement would be surpassing our own expectations and making our dreams come true!

How do you hope people to remember you?

I want people to remember me as a strong lady who never gave up and always helped those in need on my road to success as well as a caring and friendly mother.To all the people out there. don’t give up on your potential. Be brave and leap forward into the unknown. success will surely follow. And l keep reminding myself, it all began with a simple dream.